State legal officials ask SCOTUS to uphold divest-or-ban law as Trump’s request remains up in the air

Republican attorneys general of Virginia and Montana recently filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to require TikTok to sever its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the fate of the social media platform in the US remains uncertain.

The amicus brief, filed Friday, came the same day President-elect Trump filed his amicus brief, asking the Supreme Court to pause the TikTok ban and allow him to make executive decisions about TikTok after he is inaugurated.

In the announcement, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said he, along with Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and other state law officials, recently petitioned the Supreme Court to uphold legislation to seize or ban TikTok.

The social media company is under intense scrutiny because of its parent company, ByteDance, which is linked to CCP. In his summary, Miyares claimed whistleblower reports prove that ByteDance shared sensitive information with the CCP, including Americans’ browsing habits and facial recognition data.

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“Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to undeniable risks of their data being accessed and exploited by the Chinese Communist Party,” Miyares it is stated in the press release. “The citizens of Virginia deserve a government that stands firm in protecting their privacy and security.

“The Supreme Court now has an opportunity to affirm Congress’ authority to protect Americans from foreign threats while ensuring that the First Amendment does not become a tool to defend the exploitative practices of foreign adversaries.”

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Trump’s filing said he “does not endorse any party” and argued that the future president has the right to decide the fate of TikTok. Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman and the new White House communications director, told Fox News Digital that Trump’s decision “will preserve America’s national security.”

“[The brief asked] court to extend the deadline that would cause TikTok’s inevitable shutdown and allow President Trump the opportunity to resolve the issue in a way that will save TikTok and preserve America’s national security once he resumes office as President of the United States on January 20, 2025,” Cheung said.

Trump’s brief notes that he “has a particular interest in the First Amendment issues raised in this case” and that the case “presents an unprecedented, new and difficult tension between the right to free speech on the one hand and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other.”

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“As the new CEO, President Trump has a particularly strong interest in and responsibility for these matters of national security and foreign policy, and he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute by political means,” Trump’s summary said.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.